Languages of Tolas
With so many races and cultures on Tolas it is understandable that their would be an equal number of languages in the world. Many of these languages share a common root-language whilst others are completely alien. World Languages Common Spoken: ''the Common language of Tolas is shared among most civilisations, its origins likely being in the ancient empires of Farthrone. Some exclamations in common include; "Nine Hells!", "Gods!", "Heavens!", and other invocations of the planes. ''Written: ''Common is a fairly simply language to read and write it, with most people writing in short words. Elvish Spoken: The long lives of elves are reflected in their conversations. When an elf speaks, it's only after careful deliberation. As such, if you say something to an elf, don't be surprised when they simply walk away, only to offer their response later that hour. Or day. Or month. Written: Similarly, all elven writing consists of meticulously crafted poetry. Even their most mundane texts are artistry. An expert author can be known by their most beautiful, elegant, inspiring trade contracts. Dwarvish Spoken: A dwarf speaks normally enough while underground. Things get interesting on the surface, without the natural acoustics of dwarves' caves and longhalls. Because their voices don't travel nearly as far, dwarves feel the need to bellow loudly, just so others can properly hear them. Written: There's a lot to be said about Dwarven runes. One fun fact: a single written sentence can actually contain a full page of text. Dwarves are such fine masons that they actually carve runes into their runes. Dwarves will often carve simple, direct messages on the "exterior" words, while filling the "interior" words with riddles, obscure references, and innuendos that complicate the "exterior" phrase. Gnim Spoken: Gnomes are intelligent enough to speak and listen at the same time, so gnim conversations involve all parties speaking and responding simultaneously. Outsiders may assume the gnim are arguing or debating, when in fact, they're simply talking in the most efficient manner possible. Written: Gnomish texts are wonderfully compound. A gnome will oftentimes start a sentence, lose track of it, start a new sentence, finish it, become inspired for a third sentence, get bored, get lunch, cross out the first sentence, spill some jam on the second sentence, finish the third sentence out of spite, and only then rewrite the first sentence entirely. One trained in Gnomish can decipher these ideas easily enough, but to an outsider, it can seem like the ramblings of a madman. Orcish Spoken: You know how inuits have 100 words for snow? That's how the Orcish vocabulary treats battles. After all, no two battles are alike. Did you ever hear the story of Many-Fists-One-Sword-Then-Not-So-Many-Fists? Or how about Four-Eyes-Enter-One-Eye-Leaves? Written: Orcs get impatient if they have to read for too long. Luckily, Orcish authors keep their audience entertained by drawing the action out on the page, accompanied by sparse bits of text. The works of Shake Spear (the greatest Orc author of all time) resemble newspaper comic strips. Halfling Spoken: Halflings finish every sentence with an upwards-inflection, as if they were asking a question? This has led to the widespread belief that Halflings are curious, riddling creatures? In truth, only some of them like riddles? It's kind of an annoying stereotype? Written: Most Halflings are nimble enough to write with their toes, but after centuries of mockery, they keep this secret hidden from outsiders. Time has made this into a point of solemn pride among Halflings. Some Halfling feet are so distinctly smelly that they don't even leave a signature, relying purely on nasal reputation. Meanwhile, scholars wonder why Halfling books all smell like fecund cheese. Infernal Spoken: The language of lawful devils is magical in nature. Being a legalistic sort, devils can speak with two voices simultaneously, saying different things with each. They use this skill to distract their prey, making promises with one voice while twisting them with the other. Outsiders who learn this language can comfortably parse each voice, but they still have difficulty learning the skill of doublespeak. Written: Devils write their contracts in spirals, most commonly on metal discs. The outermost words are large, intelligible, and forthright. As the text swirls, it becomes harder and harder to comprehend. The size of one's disc is a matter of rank among the devils. Imps have tiny discs the size of coins, larger devils have plate-sized discs, and some grand discs can be used as shields. Abyssal Spoken: The language of chaotic demons is magically obtuse. When untrained ears hear this language, they hear an unintelligible form of their own common tongue. However, if one is trained in this speech, they know that "Can fruit gargling free damnation alive?" actually means "Where is the bathroom?" Written: If demons take the time to write, they usually only do it for their own sake. Abyssal scripts are written in a challenging cryptic only known to the individual demon. Those who can decipher such a text find information that the demon very much intended to keep private. Undercommon Spoken: Creatures of the Underdark tread lightly, never knowing which shadow may spell their doom. Their language is shaped by this caution. Undercommon is only ever spoken as a whisper. There is only one word that breaks this rule: "HELP." Denizens fill the darkness with screeching cries for aid. But travelers should beware: not all cries for help come from the helpless. Written: Undercommon is mostly written on stalagmites. When given the time, creatures will write different messages on each side of a stalagmite. Each message will hold contradictory information. Only one message tells the truth. This method of writing serves as a hidden signpost for friends and allies: in case you are lost in the Underdark, just follow the truth to find safety. Sylvan Spoken: The Sylvan language is always sung. This has many effects, not the least of which is establishing the pecking order of Fey in any conversation. The Fey with the most beautiful voice is always the most important creature in the conversation, able to silence others with a hum. Even more powerful Fey respect the entrancing beauty of a word well-sung. To speak Sylvan without singing it is a severe crime. After all, murdering words is no better than murdering people. Written: Writing Sylvan on a piece of paper is a dangerous hazard. That paper will be reminded of its arboreal roots, causing the page to slowly change with the seasons. It will rot in Autumn and be dust by Winter. Due to this, Sylvan is necessarily relegated to being written on trees and stones. Draconic Spoken: Draconic is a physically taxing language, requiring immense amounts of breath support to convey each rumbling word. You can tell a native speaker from a book-learned one by how winded they are at the end of each interaction. Written: Dragons first developed writing by scratching their claws against stone, ice, and wood. As such, Draconic is most aptly written with one's fingers and some ink. Smooth-fingered folk can achieve this effect with a specially-crafted pen. In lieu of tattoos, scaly individuals often scratch draconic phrases into their flesh. Common etchings include names of ex-lovers, the word "Mom" on the bicep, or "Love" etched on one fist and "Hate" on the other. Goblin Spoken: Goblin utilizes two separate vocabularies: High and Low Goblin. High Goblin is reserved for the tallest goblin in a conversation; low is for everyone else. Of course, goblins will always find a reason to consider themselves to be tallest, leading to near-constant arguing. Only the wisest goblins ever practice their Low. Written: The few Goblin histories that exist are extremely frustrating to scholars. They are as impatient and self-centered as their authors. An example, from the notorious Bit: "Rup kicked the snot out of me, so I put my snot in his ear, one thing led to another, and thus began the 3rd Chaos War with the elves. Rup died because his ears were full of snot and he couldn't hear THEIR daggers coming. My dagger is as clean as the day my mom threw it at me." Giant Spoken: Giants' voices are so loud and low that they can easily cause deafness in humans by screaming into their ears. This has become a sport among young giants, who think it's hilarious to have all of these deaf, bumbling humans running around. Clever trackers know they're closing in on a giant encampment when the number of deaf victims increases. Written: Giants dictate the importance of their words by how physically large they are. Gossip could fit on a boulder, genealogies could fill a cave, and holy scriptures deserve nothing less than a mile-long stretch of cliff face. This has led to the myth that mountains and seas are part of the All-Father's final message, and once deciphered, it will herald the golden age of giants. Young giants consider it an honor to travel the land and map His all-important message. Celestial Spoken: Any attempt to tell a lie or half-truth in Celestial is thwarted, as the speaker's voice is suddenly replaced with a different, godly voice which gives the full, unfiltered truth. It's said that this is the voice of Honesty, who invented Celestial as a way to communicate with her lover, Doubt. No romantic gesture is considered greater than that of a partner expressing their feelings in Celestial. Written: Celestial cannot be written in ink. Rather, books written in Celestial are magically crafted by the prayers of monks, clerics, or angels. When a group of holy folk pray with intention, the subject of the book is molded by the simplest, wisest, and most beautiful prose from each person's mind. Celestial books are prized for their objectivity and pure intent. Destroying a Celestial book will simply cause the text to return to Ioun's library. Celestial tomes can only truly be destroyed if a single creature rewrites the entire book 9 times, backwards, in Infernal. Primordial Spoken: The Primordial dialects simply cannot be spoken with a mouth. Ignan is formed around the sounds of wisping fire, terran around rumbling earth, and so on. Wizards find it easy enough to speak Primordial (through Minor Illusion and other spells). However, genies and elementals are more impressed when creatures communicate non-magically. After all, bartering with an efreeti by delicately blowing on a torch is both challenging and wildly entertaining. Written: Elementals are capable of leaving messages within the elements. If a breeze suddenly picks up in a strange manner, or fire flickers against the wind of, travelers should suspect that Primordial beings came this way and left a message. The untrained rightly see such phenomena as magical, but the studied can find wisdom and warnings in these signs. Deep Speech Spoken: Native speakers of Deep Speech are born without vocal cords. Instead, they manipulate a sac of liquid in their gullet to bubble in a specific tonal and rhythmic variance mimicking language. Speaking this way is incredibly painful, so most just prefer to use telepathy. If someone uses Deep Speech to communicate with you, they either think you're stupid or dangerous. To those outsiders hoping to communicate in kind, a bowl of water and some very uncomfortable gargling should suffice. Written: Denizens of the deep either dream of stars or live among them. Such creatures keep a mock-observatory, on which they inscribe the stars as they remember them. Each star is understood to represent a different phonetic gurgle. Deep Speakers draw constellations in their books to represent words. By finding a creature's observatory or consulting an astronomer, outsiders are able to recreate a book's message. Catspeech ''Spoken: ''Spoken in a series of purrs, roars and chirps, along with a base line of growling tones, the language of the Catfolk is notoriously difficult to follow. It is a language that relies heavily on tone inclination that manifests in passion filled conversations that involve one party often shouting over the other as they communicate. ''Written: ''Similar to draconic, the language of the catfolk features scratches and claw markings to express letters in their alphabet. Zelspeak ''Spoken: ''Native speakers of the language of the Zelfolk will fill their words with double meaning and enticing ideas, the goal for many being to get the better of the other person in a conversation. Zelspeak appears impenetrable to those that do not understand it, in truth many Zelfolk will add unnecessary words and excessive use of words that sound very similar to one another when in the presence of outsiders, speaking very quickly with eye movements and gestures also being done despite not relating to what is beings spoken. ''Written: ''The Zel language is a mix of pictographic hieroglyphics along with small script based off other languages, showing evidence of influence in draconic in particular. Zelspeak is usually written in very fine print requiring the reader to get close when reading it, often on small pieces of paper attached to price tags. Kenku ''Spoken: ''The kenku language was destroyed long ago and none still live today that are able to speak it, the kenku themselves unable to speak except by mimicry of words and phrases they have heard, replicating the voices of the original speakers perfectly. ''Written: As kenku are cursed to never speak they often rely on the written word to communicate, those as they have forgotten their language they rely on the common alphabet. Capra Spoken: ''Much like Common, The language of the capranix borrows and steals much of its vocabulary from other tongues. It features many elongated sounds often used for emphasis or exaggeration that non-native speakers find hard to replicate. It also features a more formal tone that is used when reading aloud, as much of Capra was first written down to bind verbal components of spells, ensuring they could be correctly replicated by the speaker. ''Written: As mentioned above, the Capra language was originally written down by spellcasters and thus reflected only a part of society, though as the society has become more literate the style has become more accessible over the generations. As a result of the Capra language's origins, many Capranix learn simple spells when they are young as a way of understanding the fundamentals of their language. Regional Languages Halood Spoken: Written: Golspeech Spoken: ''Golspeech arose in the dungeons of Yevin Gol out of the necessity to communicate under constant surveillance. It is naturally ambiguous and almost impossible to understand without context. The language has slowly seeped out of the prisons of Vulwat and is used by slavers and traders across Yantir to conduct illicit business. ''Written: Turaian Spoken: Written: Nerevic Spoken: Written: Mhedian Spoken: Written: Vilnian ''Spoken: ''The definitive Vilnian accent is unknown, with differences between regions and peoples in Vilnia being so wide that many people believe them to be speaking a wholly different language. Vilnians are able to understand one another relatively well, their accents however become thicker when they encounter one another outside of Vilnia. ''Written: ''Originally written in a series of lines and dashes across the edges of stones used to mark the boundaries of fey territories between the material plane and the lands of Eschensil.￼Category:In-World Concepts